The Case of the Unexpected Reunion
by Caretaker13
Summary: A familiar face from Encyclopdia's past returns after he has grown up and left the crime solving life behind him.
1. Chapter 1

**Encyclopedia Brown **

**The Case of the Unexpected Reunion**

It was exactly ten'o'clock in the morning on the first day of school at Rushmore Academy and all of the students who were taking cryptography second period that year stood outside their classroom staring at the strange lock on the handle of the wooden door, and waiting for the teacher to let them inside. The class was being held in an old, creepy, adjunct building that sat far away from the actual school and looked almost like a small cottage among the pine trees at the edge of the grounds. Many of the children had never had a class out here before and had thought this building was abandoned. A minute past ten came and class was supposed to have started, but still there was no teacher. A few students had already knocked, but gotten no answer. Then they tried the door, but the lock was on there good, and seeing as how this was the first day and all, no one was quite sure what to do now.

"Is the teacher even in there?" asked a girl wearing a cast on her arm.

"I can't tell if the lights are on," said a boy with big ears.

The students couldn't see anything at all through the building's windows because thick curtains had been drawn closed inside.

"You know if the teacher doesn't show up in the next ten minutes, we're allowed to leave," said a tall child as if it were true.

"Maybe we should try to figure out this lock," said a girl with red hair. "Since the class is all about cracking codes."

She stepped up to the door and took the lock in her hands. It looked like a metal combination lock you would find on a bicycle, but it was gold and had twelve dials with letters on them instead of numbers. Right now they were set to spell out XIBKGLTIZKSB.

"Well, that's clearly gibberish," said the girl to herself, "But, if we use the Atbash Cipher, then X becomes C..." She began to work the first dial until it showed a C instead of X. "And I would be R..."

The other kids watched with confusion as the girl turned each dial, eventually turning XIBKGLTIZKSB into CRYPTOGRAPHY. The lock popped open and the girl was able to open the door and let the other students inside.

"How did you do that?" asked a blonde boy as the students filed in and started to take seats at the desks inside the small classroom. The red-haired girl began explaining.

"Simple," she said. "I just used the Atbash Cipher, one of the oldest substitution ciphers in existence. You just turn the alphabet backwards on itself so that A becomes Z, B becomes Y, and so on until M and N meet in the middle."

"Very good," said an adult's voice from the doorway, and the red-haired girl jumped and turned around to see a tall, skinny man in his late twenties with thick brown hair, brown eyes, and a bemused smile standing there wearing a light blue, button down shirt, a brown, tweed blazer, and gray slacks.

"Who are you?" asked the big eared boy.

"Presumably, he's our teacher," said the red-haired girl.

"Correct," said the man. "I am Mr. Brown, your cryptography teacher," he announced to the whole class, "And you should all thank Ms..."

"Gleason," said the red-haired girl.

"Ms. Gleason," Mr. Brown continued, "For being clever enough to let you in."

The class made a grumbling sound and the red-haired girl smiled.

"It was simple," she said. "I figured since it's our first class you were probably testing us to see if we already knew any cryptography, and if you were going to do that then you'd use one of the simplest codes there is and have the password be something obvious like the name of the class itself, and-"

"Well done," said Mr. Brown. "Perfectly logical guesses."

The red-haired girl smiled even more.

"And where were you the whole time?" asked a dark-skinned boy.

"I was watching you all from the woods," said Mr. Brown.

Everyone, including the red-haired girl, looked surprised.

"I didn't see you," she said.

"Ah, then you all need to work on your observation skills," said Mr. Brown with a smile. Then he closed the classroom door and headed up to the front of the room where his desk and the blackboard were. All of the students had found desks by now and were seated and paying him their full attention.

"As Ms. Gleason was saying," began Mr. Brown, as he started to write on the blackboard with a piece of chalk, "The Atbash Cipher is one of the oldest substitution cipher's in the world. A cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption —a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure."

The class began quickly taking down notes in their spiral notebooks.

"The Atbash Cipher was created by the Hebrews...," Mr. Brown went on. He talked and talked for an hour and a half straight and the children hung on his every word. He taught them all about the history of encoding and encryption and was just getting into explaining Rot13 to them when the school bell rang and class had to be dismissed.

"I guess we can pick back up there tomorrow," said Mr. Brown, dropping the chalk into it's tray.

As the children grabbed their things and filed out of the small building, the red-haired girl taking one longing look back at her teacher as she left, a woman with short, dirty blonde hair in a bob cut entered the room. She was also in her late twenties with a firm jaw and light blue eyes that were framed with dark eye makeup. Her lips were painted a rose red and she had just a hint of freckles across her nose. She was wearing a clean, white blouse with dark slacks and a short, fitted, beige trench coat that lay untied and open. For a moment she just stood near the entrance looking at Mr. Brown. He didn't notice her enter because he was gathering up some papers at his desk.

"Not very observant are you, Encyclopedia?" the woman finally said.

Mr. Brown looked up, startled. Then when he saw who it was he looked surprised.

"Sally Kimball," he said, softly, and couldn't help but smile a little. "I haven't seen you in ages."


	2. Chapter 2

"Look at you," said Sally Kimball, smiling. "Encyclopedia Brown, a teacher."

"Nobody's called me 'Encyclopedia' in a very long time," said Mr. Brown with a laugh.

"Don't tell me they call you _Leroy_. You always hated that," said Sally.

"Most people just call me Mr. Brown these days."

"Ooh, Mr. Brown. Fancy. I think I'll just call you E.B. That's what I used to call you, remember?"

"E.B. is fine," said E.B. "So, what are you doing here? How did you know where to find me?"

"Your mother told me this is where you were working last time I saw her. I actually live not too far from here now, in the city. So I thought I'd stop by and see an old friend."

"I see," said E.B, walking over to Sally. "So, how is everyone back home?"

"How about we go to lunch?" said Sally. "We can catch up while we eat."

"Well... I am free for about an hour and a half. Until my fourth period class starts," said E.B., hesitantly.

"Excellent, we'll take my car," said Sally, grabbing the teacher by the hand and leading him out of his own classroom.

Sally's car turned out to be a green 1969 Camaro SS 396 convertible, which she drove like she was in the indie 500. In the passenger seat E.B. held on for dear life as Sally took the turns in the country road they were on at breakneck speed.

"Nice car!" he called to her over the noise of the rushing wind.

"What?" Sally called back, turning her head towards him. Her hair whipped about her face.

"Nevermind, just watch the road!" E.B. yelled.

Sally shrugged and turned her attention back to the road. The two drove on together without speaking.

In no time at all they arrived at a small cafe not too far from the school and were seated by a waiter at a little table outside on the patio. Sally ordered a turkey sandwich and coffee, E.B. just ordered soup and a glass of water.

"So," said E.B., after they were settled. "What made you decide to move to the city?"

"My new job," said Sally. "I work for a private detective now, funnily enough."

"Really?" said E.B., intrigued. "What's his name?"

"Diedrich Thorn," said Sally.

"Never heard of him," said E.B., dismissively. "Is he good?"

"He is," said Sally.

There was a silence and then the waiter brought their drinks.

"So I guess you've been keeping pretty busy," said Sally after taking a sip of her coffee. "Lots of kids to teach and stuff."

E.B. looked down. He knew what she was getting at.

"I know I haven't been back home to see you in a while," he said, sheepishly.

"Or called, or written," said Sally. She said it teasingly, but there was a hint of real bitterness to her voice and E.B. noticed.

"Yeah," he said, and then stopped.

"In fact, last time we talked was that first Christmas after high school when you came home from college for winter break," said Sally.

"I remember," E.B. said in an even voice. "Look it's not like I've been trying to avoid you or anything. I haven't really kept in touch with anyone back home. it's just... I don't know. After I left Idaville I just... found a new life."

"And forgot all about your old one?" asked Sally.

They looked at each other for a second and then Sally went on, "You haven't even talked to your folks in over a year."

"Well, it's like you said. I have been busy. I've been busy with a lot. School, work, finding a new apartment..."

"I get it," said Sally, although it sounded like she didn't. "I've been pretty busy myself lately, now that I've decided to be a grown up too. Of course I still find time for friends and such."

"How is everyone back home, anyway," asked E.B., trying to steer things back to a topic that was less confrontational.

"Good and bad," said Sally. "Officer Carlson became the new chief of police after your dad retired last year. He's okay, but not as good at it. He doesn't have you there to help him."

"Dad told me that crime went up after I left," said E.B.

"It's still better than a lot of other towns," said Sally. "But let's see, Bugs Meany is in jail again. It'll probably be for life this time. He robbed a liquor store on Maple Drive at gun point."

"Not surprising," said E.B. without raising an eyebrow.

"Charlie Stewart became a dentist," said Sally.

"Also not surprising," said E.B.

"Wilford Wiggins died not too long ago. Does that surprise you?" said Sally, giving the former boy detective a steely-eyed look.

"Depends," E.B. said evenly. "How did it happen?"

"A con gone wrong, we assume. He was found stabbed to death in the alley behind the drugstore."

"Then no, that doesn't surprise me," said E.B. "Crime usually leads to an early death or incarceration, so Bugs' and Wilford's fates are only logical consequences of their own bad choices."

"I agree," said Sally. She sipped her coffee. Then their food arrived.

"What exactly do you do for this guy, Thorn?" asked E.B. after a spoonful of soup.

"I'm sort of his... gal Friday, I guess you'd say. Not quite a secretary, but not quite a partner either. I just do a lot of little things to assist him," said Sally.

"I think that's very fitting," said E.B. "You were always a big help to me. You have a naturally keen mind and the gumption to back it up. That's what I never had. I was never brave like you."

"You had your moments," said Sally. "You stood up to criminals."

"_Criminals_," E.B. scoffed. "Bike thieves, and school bullies are nothing. Once the crimes started to get actually dangerous that's when I realized it was the puzzles I enjoyed, not the action. That's why I majored in codes and psychology instead of criminology like Dad wanted me too. I do my best work behind a desk solving problems, not out in the world chasing people. That was your thing."

"Together we were unbeatable," Sally said with a tinge of sad nostalgia to her words.

E.B. nodded.

They ate the rest of their lunch together quietly making small talk about the weather, the economy, and old times, including how they first met competing against each other in a mystery solving contest. Before they knew it it was time for E.B. to get back to work. Sally dropped him off in the parking lot not too far from the little building his classroom was in and gave him a hug and a small kiss on the cheek goodbye.

"See you around, Encyclopedia Brown," she said. Then she handed him a business card. "If you ever need the services of a detective, give me a call."

He looked down at the card.

**Thorn Detective Agency**

**1508 Oblong Avenue**

**Sally Kimball, Consultant**

**"No case too big."**

"Gotcha," he said to her, quietly, and tried to smile.

He got out of the car and shut the door. As she drove off, Sally gave him a wave, and he lifted his hand and gave her a sad little wave back. He was starting to feel something he hadn't felt in a very long time. It was kind of annoying to him, actually; to feel rather than think. He turned around and began to walk towards his class. As he did, he went over the events that had just occured in his mind. He was so busy thinking along the way that he didn't even notice Miss Cross, a fellow teacher, waiting for him outside his classroom door until he was almost there. She looked extremely upset.

"Is everything okay?" asked Mr. Brown.

"No, I'm afraid it's not," said Miss Cross. "School has been canceled for the rest of the day and the children sent home early."

"Why?" asked Mr. Brown.

Miss Cross leaned forward and whispered even though there was no one around. "The headmaster's been murdered," she said.

"Oh... nuts," said Mr. Brown.

Miss Cross obviously expected a different reaction, because she frowned at that one.

Mr. Brown just blinked and then he became very aware that he was still holding Sally's business card in his hand.

**Does Encyclopedia love Sally?**

_(Turn to page 104 to find out.)_


End file.
